ELSAG BAILEY BUY-OUT BY ABB APPROVED BY COMMISSION.

Following an extra two-week delay, while the European Commission's Merger Task Force scrutinised the ECU 1.8 billion deal giving Swiss-Swedish engineering giant Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) total control over Elsag Bailey Process Automation NV, the EU's competition authority has now given the take-over from Italy's Finmeccanica the green light. "The areas of overlap concern process control activities", a Commission communiqu stated. The Commission's investigations found that the operation would have a significant impact in the supply of gas chromatographs, a particular type of analyser used mainly in the petrochemical industry, where the combined market...